Using Quotas in a Lottery

Learn how quotas are configured in a lottery design.

What's included in this article?

• What is a Quota?
• Configuring a Quota
• How are Quotas Handled During Lottery Execution?
• Example

What is a Quota?

The quota functionality within a lottery design allows administrators to set a quota on each priority group within a sub-lottery. Quotas can be set with percentage limits or by number of seats.

Configuring a Quota

Navigate to Settings > Manage Lotteries > Lottery Designs > pencil icon to edit (or use the "Add New Lottery" button)

Within the sub-lottery where the priority for the quota resides, click the “Add Quota” link. 

Select if the quota will be achieved via Percentage Limit or Number of Seats.

Select “No More Than” and the Expected Value, and click "Set Quota" to save.

How are Quotas Handled during Lottery Execution?

Several background processes take place during lottery execution, including the calculation of quotas. The example below outlines the process for a tiered lottery design.

• First, the system confirms the highest priority earned on each application included in the lottery run and assigns which sub-lottery will drive its placement on the lottery list.

• Next, in sub-lottery order (sub-lottery 1, sub-lottery 2...), the system looks at the applications within a sub-lottery and orders them per the sorting method selected for the lottery run (i.e. random, date submitted within priority group, date submitted no priority group).

• As each sub-lottery is processed during the execution of the lottery, the system places applications on the Offered list based on the cutoff number assigned. Once the cutoff number is reached, the system places applications on the Waiting list (if specified in your lottery run settings).

• When the system arrives at a sub-lottery that contains a quota, it looks for the number of remaining seats that are available at the time the sub-lottery is processed.

  • The quota calculation does not use the overall cutoff number set before the lottery run.

Example

As seen below, in a tiered lottery with a quota configured in sub-lottery 2 for the priority "Sibling Attending", the system will calculate the quota based on the number of seats remaining to be filled after having placed applications on the Offered list from sub-lottery 1. 

• Once the quota conditions are met, the system looks for any remaining sub-lottery 2 applications that were not placed via the quota. The next highest priority on each of these "missed quota" applications will determine in which sub-lottery they will be included for processing.
• If the "missed quota" applications (that are processed in their next applicable sub-lottery) are placed on the Offered list, the sub-lottery number IS updated to reflect the new sub-lottery in which they were run.
• If the "missed quota" applications (that are processed in their next applicable sub-lottery) are placed on the Waiting list, they will be placed at the top of the waiting list for the applications from that sub-lottery, and the sub-lottery number displayed on the "missed quota" applications IS NOT updated.
  • Best practice: include the field lottery_rankings.sublottery_original in a Saved View of your lottery list to gain visibility into which applications may have missed the quota threshold for their original sub-lottery and were subsequently run and placed with applications from another sub-lottery.

Notes:

• Quotas are only applied to the Offered list
• Quotas are only applied at the time of lottery execution and are not considered when applications are moved from the waiting list to the offered list
• If subsequent lottery pools are run to merge applications into an existing lottery list, any seats not filled by the initial quota will not be filled in subsequent lottery pools